I stare at her dumbfounded. “What? No. I don’t know.” Groaning, I cover my face with my hands. “Why would you ask me that? I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because it will never work.”
“So, what was that little show back there?”
I huff out an annoyed sigh as we pause outside the door to Leni’s theatre class. “He’s trying to prove we can make this work in the real world.”
“You looked like a cute couple to me,” she says with a shrug.
Narrowing my eyes at her, I scoff. “In what universe do Luca and I look good together? He’s one of the hottest guys on campus, and I’m just?—”
“A smoking hot bombshell,” she finishes for me. “Willow, I wish you’d see yourself the way we see you, and not the cruel words your mum spews at you.”
“Whatever,” I reply, my cheeks heating.
“Look, you still have time, right?”
I shake my head. “Only one week.”
“Then spend it with that sexy stepbrother of yours. Don’t worry about what anyone else says. If it feels right to go with him, then go, but don’t spend the rest of your life regretting the what-if because you were too scared to try. You deserve love, my friend, and I want you to be happy.”
I pull her in for a hug. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Let me know what you decide but know that I’m firmly in the Happy Willow camp.”
As I leave her and head to my music composition class, my head is spinning, and my heart is torn. I don’t want to say goodbye to Luca. He makes me feel seen for the first time in my life, and I believe him when he tells me he wants this. But it’s so hard to ignore the self-doubt tugging inside me, telling me I’m not good enough for him.
The confident angel from the club is a persona I’ve been playing. It’s not who I am in real life. Willow Hepburn cares about what other people think, and she’s terrified of not being who he needs.
Luca is waitingfor me on the steps of the arts building when classes end, his face breaking into a warm smile when he sees me push through the door. He closes the distance between us, pulling me into his arms and dipping his head to kiss me.
“How’s my girl?” he murmurs against my lips.
My cheeks flush. “Luca,” I warn, shoving at his chest, but he doesn’t budge.
“Angel,” he mimics, pulling back only far enough to grin down at me.
“People are watching.”
“Let them.” He presses his lips to the top of my head. “I told you I don’t care what anyone thinks.”
Gazing up at him, I see the truth in his words. “You really are serious about this, aren’t you? About us.”
He tucks my hair behind my ears and brushes his lips over mine. “Absolutely. Are you ready to go see your course advisor?”
I’m tempted to shake my head, to call this off now before he can break my heart, but to my surprise, I say, “Okay. Let’s do this.”
The massive grin that breaks out on his face causes my chest to expand, and I let him take my hand in his and pull me along to the administration building. On the way, he tells me about a conference call he and his coach had with his new club.
“They’re going to set us up with an apartment in Hurworth-on-Tees near Rockliffe Park where we train, and I’ll start training with the first team as soon as we get there,” he says, his voice full of that energy he gets when he’s talking about football. “I’ll play a couple of gameswith the academy team before I get my shot in the Championship. But that’s okay, I’ll need time to settle into the style of play over there.”
“That’s amazing,” I tell him, even though I only understand half of what he’s saying.
“I’ll learn from players I grew up watching on TV. How wild is that?”
“Not that wild,” I say with a half-smile. “You’ve worked hard for it.”
